


Signal

by UnrealRomance



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Everyone lives, Except for Mordin and Legion-- but everyone else, F/M, Gen, Other, Survived, alive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-13
Updated: 2016-07-13
Packaged: 2018-07-23 20:51:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7479525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnrealRomance/pseuds/UnrealRomance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shepard always thought the little pen-clicker she got was silly but practical. A way to find her team if they needed her, for them to find her, if necessary.</p><p>She's never used it like this before. She's never felt so whole and complete to see those little flashes that mean-- they survived.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Signal

**Author's Note:**

> This is independent of any of my other stories.
> 
> Just occurred to me while walking around the house, and I had to write it up...then post it. Of course.

It was a silly thing, at first.

Just a little tube, that looked like a pen. Something you could hold in your hand and hide completely if you curled your fingers around it.

The small button on top the same color as your skin or gloves, so even if someone saw it in your hand, their eyes would skip over it.

Liara and Tali put their heads together for it, the programming and resources necessary to set up the system. It'd work by sending a burst to a satellite or relay, whatever's closest- send out your coordinates.

But the real function is-

Well. When one of us presses the button, we all get that flash of color.

When I press the button, lying in the aftermath of the crucible blast... I don't expect it to still work. After all, I just basically destroyed everything Synthetic in the universe, didn't I?

But it lights up, bright crimson. They made that my color, because of my hair. It used to make me laugh- now...now I can see it matches the blood oozing from my body. My medi-gel is also working, which is confusing, my omni-tool being undamaged...

' _Maybe it only destroyed the conscious synthetics?'_ I'd sent a message to EDI before walking up that platform to destroy the Reapers, hoping she could protect herself somehow.

I kind of feel like I'm drowning in my own blood, like my bones are snapped at every joint- except my left hand. So I picked up the little pen and hit the button, just because...

It's a habit, I guess.

I lie there for a while, listening to my own, bloody breathing. Clicking the pen absent-mindedly every once in a while.

And then I felt it vibrate, which shouldn't happen except when someone else is clicking.

So I lift it, hand shaking as I peer at the shiny, deep blue.

I smile at the pen. _'Of course she'd find a way to make it still work.'_ Dark blue is Liara's color.

Then it flashes light blue, almost silver. Powder blue, I told him- when he asked. _'Garrus!'_ A fierce, overwhelming joy begins to overwhelm my every thought. _'If some of them survived, maybe-'_

Gunmetal gray flashes across the pen and I laugh- even through the pain of my broken ribs. _'Grunt!'_

That is followed by molten orange, for Javik- then deep lavender for Tali.

I'm crying, not from the pain anymore, as the lights flash across the pen. I click again, in the lull between colors. _'Sound off, soldiers. All of you._ _ **All**_ _of you!_ _'_

A purple so dark it's almost black. Kasumi. How did she survive the Crucible?

Yellow. Zaeed. _'Of course_ _ **that**_ _old bastard would make it._ _'_ I think to myself as my lungs begin to clear of blood. It isn't much, and I'm still in pain- but at least I won't choke on my own blood.

Dark green. My heart thuds against my broken ribs, painful and twisting. "Thane." It leaves my lips in a cracked whisper, and I click it twice after the color disappears.

Powder blue flickers several times as if Garrus is laughing at me.

I bare my teeth in a bloody grin and click it again, longer this time- communicating a censure, I guess. The thought would make me laugh if I weren't avoiding that.

Gold. Samara.

Red-brown. Jack. Jack! I wonder if her kids survived too?

Dark red, Wrex. Probably with Grunt and trying to get a click in edgewise between me and my overzealous family.

A tentative flash of light silver. "EDI? EDI! Please god tell me that's you, somehow." It hurts so much to talk.

I click excitedly a few times and the silver flashes for a long moment that feels like she's saying 'yes, yes it's me'.

Acidic green, Joker! "Thank you!" I click the pen twice, long blinks. "Thank you for being alive, thank you!" If Joker had fallen, it would've been...even with everyone else, losing just one-

Mordin is still gone. Legion is still gone...but everyone else is alright.

Miranda and Jacob probably didn't keep theirs, so it's not odd that-

Goldenrod-brown. Miranda. I guess I spoke too soon.

Jacob's color flashes across the pen then, too. A nice shade of turquoise.

What about-

White-blue. Vega.

Everyone. All of them.

I click again, as tears streak down my face, brushing some debris off of me- hoping to be found now that I have a reason to get up.


End file.
